Mayra DiRico, 34

HSBC Bank USA, Senior vice president

Where is Mayra now?

Executive vice president and regional president of metro New York, North region, HSBC Bank USA
Updated October 12, 2012
By Michelle Leder

Mayra DiRico's parents fled Cuba when Mayra was just a baby for a shot at a better life in the United States.

Growing up in Astoria, Queens, Ms. DiRico was determined to live up to that promise. Working her way through New York University, she not only managed to graduate summa cum laude, but also discovered her avocation via a part-time job as a bank teller. Degree in hand, she immediately signed up for the management training program at Marine Midland Bank (now HSBC).

She excelled from the outset. After just three months on the job, Ms. DiRico had sold more certificates of deposit and booked more new loans than anyone else in the region, besting people who had been doing it for years.

Raymond DeSilva remembers hiring Ms. DiRico back in 1987 after a routine recruitment meeting at NYU. He says that he knew she was an overachiever early on. ''At first, I thought it was a fluke, but Mayra continued to excel,'' says Mr. DeSilva, now a district manager for Citizens Bank in Massachusetts. ''She has a type of energy that just sort of exudes from her.''

At HSBC, Ms. DiRico soared through the ranks. In July, after running the bank's largest Manhattan branch for four years, she was promoted to run HSBC's 25 branches in the boroughs beyond Manhattan.

On a typical day, Ms. DeRico now bounces from borough to borough the way some people bounce from desk to desk. No one is happier with her new job than Ms. DiRico. ''I've grown here and been able to move right up the ladder,'' she says.